I have read many interpretations of this scene, but nothing satisfied me. Nothing was long enough, nothing touched enough subjects. So I wrote this for myself, and hope some of you might enjoy it. Merry Christmas, y'all!

I didn't know if I was sweating because of the inhuman heat that New York City was currently hosting or because I was in front of my apartment building for the first time in, like, eight months.

Maybe I should have sent mom an IM when the war had ended, maybe after the Romans had left. Maybe I should have given her another call. Maybe I shouldn't have been so vague in the letters I sent her with the help of Coach Hedge. Maybe I shouldn't have waited three days before showing up at home.

As it happened, I had waited three days – since the Romans had left, at least. Six days since the battle. I could have left Camp on the evening that the Twelfth Legion did, when Annabeth had told me the amazing news that she would stay in New York for our senior year and that we could go to college in New Rome – and then stay in the city for as long as we needed. I had been ecstatic. But I had stayed at camp for a couple more days.

Why? I wasn't sure. There wasn't much I could do about the injured, since the Apollo Cabin, although overworked, seemed to be handling it with the help of a few other campers. Camp was being fixed as a whole, but that was going on without any say of mine. The meetings had finished. There had been nothing that I had to attend to. Still, I had stayed.

Maybe to calm my nerves? I knew I couldn't talk to my mom and tell her what had happened if I weren't in an at least semi-sane state of mind. This war had pushed me harder than the last one, in more ways than one, and I wasn't sure how I was handling everything now that the threats were over.

However, my body shook with anticipation. I missed my mom. Granted, I had been asleep for most of the time I'd been away, but – call me a mama's boy – any time away from her was enough for me to miss her. I had been scared to death that I would die without her knowing what was going on. I had also been scared to death of her knowing what was going on.

I knew I couldn't avoid the questions, though. I had never been on such a long quest, on such a dangerous quest. I had never gone missing like that. My mom would want to know at least the gist of everything. She would want to know why a part of me looked broken while another part of me seemed so full of hope for the future.

"Hey," Annabeth squeezed my hand. "Do you want me to press the intercom?"

Of course she was with me. There would be no way I could face my parents without her support. And there would be no way they wouldn't want to hug the living daylights out of Annabeth as well. I knew she had come here often when I was gone, even if I didn't like to think how hard it must have been for her to break the news to them. She wouldn't tell me details, but I knew she came here to cry. My family was a second family to her. It made me happy, truly, that the most important people in my life got along so well and cared about each other. They had suffered together in my absence. Now, they should celebrate together as well.

"I'm pressing the intercom," Annabeth decided when I didn't move a muscle. My heartbeat sped up even more when she did, and I squeezed her hand tighter.

When someone picked up, I stopped breathing.

"Hello?"

That was Paul's voice. That was Paul's tired voice, which wouldn't make much sense. Being a teacher, he took most of the summer off along with his students. Although a new term was approaching… maybe he was planning his classes for the semester.

Or maybe he's just worried in general, dumb-head. His demigod stepson is missing.

"Hey, Paul," Annabeth's voice almost didn't shake. "It's Annabeth."

The front door buzzed before she even got to her name, and Annabeth pulled me through it.

The doorman didn't usually pay much attention to anything apart from his portable TV. It was just a nod of his head every time I went by. He was probably familiar with Annabeth now as well, so he indeed nodded his head, barely raising his eyes to us. Key word being barely. When we reached the stairs, he seemed to compute that he hadn't seen me in months and looked up properly, his jaw almost hitting the floor. Before he could say anything, though, I rushed Annabeth up in front of me and disappeared from his sight.

The walk to the fifth floor was silent. My hands were shaking. My stomach was in knots. I felt like I would burst out running at any moment. But Annabeth held my hand, stroking the back of my fingers with her thumb, and I remembered to breathe.

Then I forgot how to breathe when we reached my apartment's door. Annabeth looked at me, "Do you want me to knock?"

I was tempted to say yes. She was being perfect, really, helping through everything. And I wanted to be able to thank her properly. But I felt like I should at least do something. My free hand felt like concrete, but I would knock on my own front door. So I did.

It took two seconds for the door to open.

"Sweetie, Paul's getting the… tea…" my mom's voice faded out when she realized Annabeth hadn't come alone.

I took her moment of shock to capture every detail about her appearance. I had once been afraid that I would forget how she looked like after I had gotten my memories of her back, so I would never again take for granted the fact that I could just look at her. Her brown hair had more gray streaks than I remembered, and her face had more worried lines than it should for someone her age. She looked thinner than before, probably from worrying so much, but not as unhealthy as I had expected her to be. Maybe Paul had kept her eating and sleeping.

That's as far as I went before we both moved and crunched each other in a hug. Her tears drenched my shirt and her sobs echoed down the hall. She felt tiny in my arms, seeing as she was shorter and much less muscular than Annabeth. However, I was the one feeling small in her embrace, as if I was ten years old again. Her scent – cookies, lavender shampoo, home – broke my reverie completely, and a tear ran down my cheek.

I don't know for how long we stood there hugging in the entryway. She kept mumbling my name over and over, and calling me by all the pet names she had for me, and I didn't feel even a little bit embarrassed.

When she finally pulled back, we kept each other close. She framed my face with her hands and I almost broke down again.

"You're alive," she muttered through her tears. Her eyes were glittering with the brightest of the blues. "You're home. Oh, my gods, Percy."

"I know," I cut in before she started hyperventilating again. "I missed you."

I heard a sniff behind me and remembered Annabeth was still there. Then I noticed Paul was standing just behind my mother, looking as shocked as she was, but almost managing to keep himself together. I locked eyes with him for a moment and felt something squeezing my heart. His hair had grown grayer as well, and there were huge dark circles around his tired eyes. I had made them worry too much.

"I'm sorry," I managed, looking back at my mom. "I didn't mean to –"

"Shh," she hugged me close again. "Let's talk over cookies."

I hadn't had my mom's cookies in way too long. The simple familiarity of it made me laugh while I buried my face in her hair. She finally let go of me to let me enter the apartment and turned to Annabeth.

Annabeth received a hug almost just as long and tight, with just as many tears, when she passed my mother. I watched them for a couple of seconds before turning to Paul. He had been studying me, as if trying to search my face for scars and figure out what had happened. He was a smart man; I knew he could see it was bad. Not because of the physical scars – ambrosia and nectar healed most of them. There weren't many –, but because of the emotional ones. I was sure he could see them written on my eyes.

That's when another thing snapped inside me and I went to hug him. His smell of coffee was so comforting, so home, that my body shook. His arms were much steadier than my mom's and he was still only slightly taller than me.

"I'm really sorry," I told him.

"No one said it was your fault."

I didn't realize I needed to hear that until I did. I knew the whole war and everything hadn't been my fault. But I was guilty of a lot of things. Worrying them was the main one. I still felt the need to apologize, but in that moment Paul showed me he wouldn't have any of that. And I was surprisingly grateful.

"My dear," my mom said to Annabeth, cradling her face like she did to me, "you both look like you need food. I need to start cooking right now."

"Mom…" I didn't know what I was going to say, but she silenced me with one glance.

"Blue cookies. Now."

I didn't offer to help my mom with the baking because I knew, from experience, that it would end in disaster. Paul was a good cook, but he wasn't allowed to help with the cookies specifically, because they never tasted the same when he was involved. My mom was very strict when it came to my favorite dish, so you can imagine my shock when Annabeth started helping, since the last time she had collaborated on something in the kitchen I had gotten a blue brick birthday cupcake.

But I sat at the kitchen table with Paul and watched, astonished, as the two women worked flawlessly around each other. They didn't need to ask for help or ingredients – they seemed to have a routine, practiced to the last spoon of sugar. Since Paul didn't seem the least bit surprised at this, I could only deduce one thing.

And it broke my heart. Also warmed it, but mainly broke it. Because, as I realized, Annabeth had come here while I was missing not only to cry and update my mother. At some point, probably, my mom started baking her my cookies. And somehow Annabeth must have tried to help, and mom had taught her everything. Who knew how many times they had baked together so they could cope with everything.

Paul must have caught on to my train of thoughts – maybe I was frowning; Annabeth said I had the habit –, because he got up and got two Cherry Cokes from the fridge. I accepted mine as I watched him take a long sip of his. Neither my mom nor Paul were huge fans of Cherry Coke; mostly, they bought the regular for them and the cherry one for me. But I hadn't been home in months, and there was Cherry Coke in the fridge. And Paul was drinking it instead of the regular one.

If anything else caused something to squeeze my heart, I was sure it would stop beating.

"I hope the both of you know that I want to hear everything that happened," mom said as Annabeth poured the chocolate chips in the bowl my mom was holding. Some of the chips fell on the floor when Annabeth's hands shook.

"Mom," I started, carefully watching Annabeth for any signs of distress. She kept focused on her work. "You know I always tell you what happened."

"You gloss over everything, Percy," mom spoke looking at me. She stopped mixing, causing Annabeth to stop pouring the chips. "I want to know what's happened to you."

I paused. "I don't want to worry you. You've worried enough without having to hear the details about –"

"Your quest? In Europe?"

I looked away. I meant what I had said. I never told her the details of the nastiest parts of my quests, mainly because she didn't need to hear that kind of stuff. I knew my mother was a very strong person who could handle bad news. But what was the point in making her worry over something that had already happened?

I felt Annabeth's eyes on me and couldn't refuse them. She was thinking the same thing I was. We wouldn't be able to simply not tell them about Tartarus. And I knew it would break my mom's heart more than anything I had ever done.

"Your call and your letters didn't say anything, Percy," mom continued with a softer voice, and I looked back at her. "And I know something happened."

"Gaea rose."

Her eyes reprimanded me. "Something happened to you. To both of you." She turned to Annabeth, but she didn't meet her eyes, choosing to play with a few stray chips.

The silence was starting to get uncomfortable when Annabeth spoke. "We'll get there, Sally. But we'll need the cookies."

So the baking continued. Paul started a conversation about the most hilarious sentences he had read on his students' essays last term to try and lighten the mood. And bless his heart, it worked. There was no more strained talk about my whereabouts until two batches of cookies were out of the oven.

Then we moved to sit in the living room, and I knew there was no delaying it.

The cookies were on the coffee table, looking both parts delicious and blue. My second can of Cherry Coke was next to them, and Annabeth sat close to me on the couch with her own cup of tea. Mom took my other side, holding my hand, while Paul stretched himself on the armchair. They both looked at us expectantly.

Annabeth and I looked at each other, and I encouraged her to begin.

"Well, I don't know what you guys know."

"Tells us like we don't know anything," mom said.

"But you know that Percy was taken to the Roman camp." They both nodded, but Annabeth knew that they knew that. "Okay, well, we found him there… He had just been elected praetor."

From the confusion on my parents' face, I decided I needed to tell them about my adventures first. So I launched into the story of waking up with barely any memories. And yes, I was embarrassed and went tomato red when I said the only thing I actually remembered was Annabeth – I only told them that because it was important to the story, otherwise I could have died in peace without the longest awwwww my mom had ever said. And the cheek pinching.

Annabeth and I took turns telling our sides of the quest. Every time mom sensed we were being too vague, she called us out on it and made us explain better. It was fine at first, but it started to get complicated once we'd reached Rome.

I didn't want to tell her about the sudden fear of drowning that I had developed. I still felt silly about it. So I downplayed it. She noticed. I had to explain better.

When Annabeth got to the part of her solo quest following the Mark of Athena, I partly didn't want to hear about it. It was hard for her to keep talking as well, and I can't pretend I had it harder than her when it came to that quest – not even close, even if I was having my own battle in the Colosseum – but I was holding her hand for support just as much as she was holding mine. I didn't like to remember how it felt to let her walk away alone.

"Okay," mom breathed. "So you trapped a spider goddess in a huge finger-cuff and the rest of you came blasting in through the ceiling."

"Pretty much," I agreed.

"And we all started to secure the statue, because the floor was cracking," Annabeth went on, even though her own voice was beginning to crack. "But I didn't… I didn't realize… I was covered in webs and…" Her voice failed her.

Mom frowned. "What is it?"

This was it. This was the part that I wanted to avoid completely. Annabeth's hand was shaking in mine, and mom was squeezing my other one so hard I could barely feel it. I didn't know who would have the courage to keep telling the story, as I wasn't sure my voice would come out.

Paul sat forward. "Wait, you said the floor was cracking. And that goddess fell through it." Annabeth nodded. "Where did she fall to?"

The word just wouldn't come out. I had to tell them. I couldn't avoid it. There was no way around the subject. Annabeth had closed her eyes, and I searched her face worriedly. She had just told us about her solo quest and her battle with Arachne. She was drained. It was on me.

"Tartarus," I spoke at last, keeping my eyes on Annabeth. "It was tunnel straight to Tartarus."

Mom gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Paul frowned, as if he didn't quite believe it. "Tartarus? As in –"

"As in the darkest and deepest part of the Underworld," Annabeth whispered.

"Isn't there where monsters go when they die?" mom asked me.

"Yeah." I took a deep breath. "Any enemy of the gods, really. Monsters. Some gods. Giants. Titans."

There was silence after that. Annabeth was taking steady breaths, and I tried to get into the same rhythm. I could see from the corner of my eye my mom looking at Paul and having a quick, but silent, conversation. She turned to me, then. "Did you guys manage to secure the statue to the ship?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Jason and Frank the Eagle kept tying the Athena Parthenos with the ropes Leo threw them. Piper was already on board and everything. Nico, Hazel, Annabeth, and I went for the ladders."

I didn't offer more for a moment, and mom touched my shoulder. "But?"

"But I was tangled in spider webs," Annabeth replied, still with her eyes closed. "All around my ankle. I didn't notice."

When she finally opened her eyes, I was already looking at her. I knew her well enough to know when she was on the verge of tears. I also knew her enough to know when she was on the verge of the verge of tears, when she was keeping herself together. She pleaded with her eyes and, even if I wasn't much better than her, I took the lead from then on.

"The pit started to pull her in," I muttered, staring at the cookies. I let go of my mom's hand to grab one, and turned it over in my palm. "Hazel saw it, but I didn't know what was going on. Annabeth was being pulled backward, so I just grabbed her."

"But…" mom quaked. "But didn't Hazel or Nico cut the silk?"

I shook my head. "They were too far, almost at the ladders. Annabeth was being pulled too fast. I could barely hold on. There was no way for me to reach my sword."

"But then…"

"We fell over the edge," I decided to get it over as quickly as I could. "I managed to grab onto a ledge a few feet below, though."

Mom sighed shakily. "Then you were both pulled up?"

I looked at her. I think, deep down, she knew the truth by then. She could see it in our body language. But I couldn't blame her for doing what she had been doing for the past few minutes – trying to find a way out, a way where we hadn't fallen.

"Nico tried," I told her. "But the pit as a whole… It was just… pulling us in already. I told him to meet us at the other side of the Doors of Death."

"And I told you to let go of me. He could've saved you," Annabeth murmured.

I stopped and turned back to her. Her sentence simply didn't make sense to me. The mere thought of letting her fall alone was as inconceivable now as it had been then. It hadn't even occurred to me as an actual course of action. Either we were rescued together or we fell together, nothing else to say. Besides, she knew that no one could have pulled me up when I was fifteen feet in.

I stared at her until she met my eyes. I was as serious as I had ever been. I knew the whole experience was messed up. Maybe she blamed herself for not cutting the spider silk from her ankle and getting us both to Tartarus. Did it suck? A lot. Did I wish we hadn't needed to go there? Hades, yes. But it was part of the quest, I could see it now. As harsh and torturous as it had been, it had been necessary; otherwise we wouldn't have closed the Doors and the world would have ended.

Moreover, even if I was as doomed as her once we fell over, it was my choice to stay with her. It was a choice I would make again. I had no regrets whatsoever. And I knew that Annabeth knew that we would do that for each other in the blink of an eye. So I would be damned if she spent time blaming herself rather than accepting what had happened.

"There was no way anyone could have reached me," I said in a neutral tone of voice.

"I know that, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that" Annabeth shifted her focus to the cookies. "I just –"

"It wasn't, in any way, your fault. It was going to happen. It had to happen."

"I know, Percy, but I could have –"

"Fallen alone? Survived Tartarus on your own? Come up with a plan?" I knew I had poked the wound when she stiffened. "There was nothing you could have done."

"I know that!" Annabeth finally looked at me. "We couldn't help… It had to happen. But… but you can't…" She closed her eyes again. "You fell because of me," she whispered so softly I barely heard it.

"You would have done the same for me."

"Of course I would! But still, you… you can't expect me to just be okay with that."

"I'm okay with that."

"Percy…" Now she really was on the verge of tears.

Yes, I was acutely aware of my parents watching this whole thing as if they were watching a ping-pong match. I didn't want to have this discussion while they were sitting right there – really, there were only so many times I could embarrass myself in front of my mom before it got ridiculous. And I didn't want to make Annabeth cry. I knew how much she hated crying, especially in front of other people. Even if she had probably shed tears with my mom last year, I couldn't picture her being too comfortable now.

"You actually fell, then?" my mom's weak voice broke the tension. "Both of you?"

I noticed then that mom had tears in her eyes, and they were threatening to fall. I didn't want them to, but I nodded.

"Oh, my gods," she whispered. "You poor children."

She pulled us both into a hug before I could react. She wasn't sobbing this time, which was almost worse. I knew that what she was imagining didn't come even close to the reality of Tartarus, but I had a feeling that she was aware of that and that she was even more scared because of it.

Mom made us eat a few cookies before we could continue the story. I did gloss over most things, I'm sorry, but I couldn't tell her. Both of them were already very scared with everything I was telling. However, even hearing some of the horrors, mom could sense that it wasn't the whole story; that as horrific as it had been, it was still downplayed. I could see her battling herself over whether to make me explain or not. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear it. And I wasn't sure I wanted her to know – how do you tell your own mother about how you made a goddess drown in her own poison? Or about how your girlfriend thought you'd abandoned her because you once did that to someone? Or how you left behind the only friends you'd made down there, letting them sacrifice for you?

Some parts, I didn't even mention to her. I gave her the gist of it and jumped straight to when we met our friends again at the House of Hades. In comparison to Tartarus, the rest of the quest was much easier to tell. I skipped over the part when I kissed Annabeth at the Acropolis, telling her I loved her and that the Poseidon-Athena rivalry ended there. I was sure I was blushing as I skipped over it, but mom didn't ask. She found it more amusing the fact that my nosebleed had awakened Gaea.

Annabeth was well enough by the time I got to Camp Half-Blood's battle, so she took over. Her voice caught again when she talked about how we had no signs from Leo since he had exploded Mother Earth, but mom was now used to friends of mine dying heroically, so she didn't push the subject.

We tried to end it in a light note.

"Chiron, Reyna, and Frank agreed to an exchange program between the camps," Annabeth was saying. "So now we can help each other when needed. And any Greek demigod is welcome in New Rome as well." She smiled at me, and I returned it immediately.

"To live there, you mean?" Paul asked.

"Go to college, take a break, live, yeah."

"Annabeth got us a scholarship at the New Rome University," I couldn't help but saying with a grin. "Full scholarship."

Mom gasped. "Really? That is amazing news! Oh, Percy, now you can use the money we were saving and spend it on something else."

I blinked. "You guys were saving money so I could go to college?"

She exchanged a smile with Paul. "Of course we were, sweetheart. Why wouldn't we?"

"But… my life expectancy wasn't really that long."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Because that is good enough reason not to plan? Not to hope? Frankly, you're my son, and yes, I started saving money for your college tuition as soon as I could."

"It was never not an option," Paul added in. "We just had to sort out priorities and plan ahead."

I didn't know what to say. Before I knew of New Rome, I had barely let myself think that far into the future. I was just happy for the moment and took it day by day. College had rarely crossed my mind, especially because my grades were never the greatest. I just wanted to survive school. But to know that my parents believed in me enough to start saving the money that we didn't have for something that had a small chance of happening… I didn't know how to thank them.

I hugged my mom, then, trying to express my gratitude. I caught Paul's eyes and did my best to transmit the same sentiment. He merely winked at me as mom pulled back with a smile, caressing my cheek. "I've always been so worried for your future. I can't say how relieved I am that the both of you can now go to college and live the rest of your lives in a safe place."

"Well," Annabeth said, "we still need to do well in high school and on our SATs. Percy has to catch up on everything he missed. Then we need to study for the DSTOMPs, which –"

"Can we not talk about school?" I interrupted.

"Are you staying in New York, Annabeth?" mom asked.

"Of course. Who else would get this Seaweed Brain to study?"

I groaned as everyone else laughed, but I couldn't be too mad. Having Annabeth in town for our senior year was all kinds of awesome. And a full scholarship to New Rome, going to college with her in a place where we didn't have to worry about monsters… it was beyond anything I had hoped for us. But now I could hope, and I could plan. And it was all I ever wanted.

"Well, I guess I can breathe now," mom sighed. "You're finally home."

"I'm sorry, mom," I repeated.

Her face clouded over. "I am tempted to ground you until you're thirty, though, young man. For disappearing like that. For barely giving us any news when you could."

"I didn't want to worry you…" I tried to argue while slowly pushing Annabeth so I wouldn't be so close to my mom in case she wanted to grab my ear or something.

"We were worried sick! Honestly, I think I've had enough heart attacks to last me an eternity, and gods help me, I will march down Olympus if they put you up to anything else. You've been through so much! They can't ask any more of you."

"The gods don't have that kind of conscience."

"But you do," mom looked me in the eyes, firmly. "And I won't have you prancing around and going on quests to help the latest god who got himself in trouble just because you're all powerful and they think they're entitled to your good-will. Let them figure themselves out, I say. You've done your deed."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut in.

"Besides… I want my son at home, for heaven's sake. I want him to be a teenager for once. You grew up too fast. I feel like I missed a part of your life, and not only all these past few months." Mom pursed her lips. I could see her eyes getting wetter. "Look at you." She cupped my face. "There's all this stubble on your cheek; you're not a child anymore. You'll be seventeen in a little more than a week. A legal adult in a year. You'll be going to college across the country, and then you'll live there the rest of your life, because it's the only safe place for you. I know you'll visit, but you can't go on a plane. It won't be as often as any of us would like."

Mom had made it. I was almost tearing up again.

"You're still a baby to me. You'll always be. But you have a future now, a wonderful future ahead of you – one I could never have dreamed of, but always hoped you could have. And I won't have you getting yourself killed because some people think you're their slave dog, do-it-all demigod. I want you home."

She rested her free hand on her lap and squeezed the bottom part of her shirt, as if cradling it. Something ticked in the back of my mind, but the thought couldn't quite form, so I let it go and placed my hand over the one mom had on my cheek. "I promise you… I promise both of you," I looked at Paul, "that I won't do that again. Seriously, I'm also fed up, don't worry. I don't want to go on any more quests. I want to personally smack Hera."

"I don't want either of you going on quests," mom said. "It might be selfish, but… There are tons of demigods out there. Let them handle it for once. You both have been worrying for what? Five years? Enough is enough."

I liked that way of thinking. In all honesty, the gods could do as they pleased, as long as they didn't need me for anything else. And my mom was right – there were tons of other demigods, a lot of them very powerful. It didn't have to fall on my shoulders anymore.

"So… now that you've told your story, we have some news as well," Paul said, looking very smug.

I frowned. "News?"

"Oh!" mom exclaimed. "Oh, Percy, I finished my novel!"

My eyes went wide. "The one you've been writing for ages?"

She nodded, grinning. "And I've got a publisher. We're setting the date around spring. There's still so much work to do, but it's settled. It's happening."

"Are you serious?" Annabeth asked, grabbing my arm. "That's amazing! When can I read it?"

"Mom, gods," I gaped. "You deserve this so much."

Her grin melted into a fond smile as she looked at me. She knew what I was talking about. She had suffered too much in her life. She was one of the nicest people in the world, who deserved all kinds of good things but had gotten barely anything. When she met Paul, her life got a little more on track. But this – her book –, this was what she had always wanted.

I went to hug her, but she stopped me. "There's one more thing."

"There's more?" I chimed.

Mom grabbed Paul's hand and mine, one in each of hers, and locked eyes with him. They had one of their eye conversations again – it used to annoy me a bit, not knowing what they were saying, but once mom told me that Annabeth and I had been doing the same thing for years, I decided it was fair enough.

"Well," mom started once Paul nodded encouragingly, "we hope you'll be excited. I wasn't sure… You were still missing when it all happened, but… we figured you wouldn't have wanted our lives to stop."

"I didn't. I don't."

Mom smiled. "You're so kind, Percy. That's one of the reasons why we decided… Well, we thought you'd make a great big brother."

I think the world spun around me when she said that. The way she was cradling her lower stomach made sense now. The reason why she probably looked healthier than she normally would be in the current situation – Paul had been making her eat. She would be making herself eat as well, because she was eating for two.

"Percy?" I believed it was my mom's voice, but I couldn't be sure.

"You're serious?" I mumbled in a daze, looking between her, Paul, and her stomach.

"Yes," mom said nervously now. "I'm almost two months along."

"You're pregnant."

"Yes."

"You're having a child."

"Yes."

"That's my little brother or sister in there."

"Yes."

There was a heartbeat's pause, and then a grin took over my face. I hadn't smiled like that in a long time, and I could feel my muscles almost popping. I realized I was laughing, delighted, and I jumped on my mom, crushing her in yet another hug. I somehow managed to get us both up and I spun her around the living room. I heard Annabeth's and Paul's worried voices warning me about the coffee table ("You'll knock down your Coke, watch for the TV!" and "You can't carry a pregnant woman like that!", not necessarily in that order), but I was too happy to care.

When I finally put her down, I hugged her again.

Mom laughed. "So, it's safe to say you're excited?"

I looked at her, incredulous. "Excited? I'm overjoyed! I am… so happy for you guys," I glanced at Paul, and he seemed to be wearing the same smile as I was. That was all I needed to see. "Seriously… Mom. This is the best news I've heard all day."

Annabeth got up to congratulate her as I hugged Paul as well. My cheeks were starting to hurt, but I couldn't care less. I had my family in that room, each one of them alive after another war, and there was a new life blossoming inside my mom. If I had cramps from smiling too much – well, it was the best kind of cramps a guy could get.

I was helping my mom tidy up the kitchen while Paul explained to Annabeth what I would have to do to make up for my time lost at school. I was sure she was writing everything down so she could walk me through it later, and it probably would be polite for me to listen as well, but I honestly wasn't in the right state of mind for that.

"I have a feeling it will be a girl," mom commented as she passed me a plate to dry. "I had a dream a couple of days ago."

"Well, I don't care. I still can't believe it."

Mom threw me a side smile. "I know you'll be a good brother. You already are one to Tyson, and you're as close as it can get to your closest friends."

"Don't worry. Baths will never be an issue as long as I'm concerned." I pointed my finger at the tap and a bit of the water coming down disentangled itself from the rest and formed a trident. I let it fall after a couple of seconds, but it was enough for mom to giggle.

"I'm sure they won't. They'll think you're the coolest brother in the world."

"I will be the coolest brother in the world."

Mom kept on passing me dishes with a soft turn of lips. "But I didn't mean only your entertaining abilities." She partially turned to me, while still washing a bowl. "I said it before, but you're kind, Percy. Even if you've grown too fast and in a world where no child should be, experiencing things you never should have needed to… You still turned out to be someone I'm so proud of."

"Mom, you can't do this now." I felt like hiding somewhere.

"I will do this whenever I please," she fully faced me. "I need you to know how proud I am of the man you've become."

No, please, I wanted to say. I'm not that great and honorable, honest. I pretty much kill for a living.

She seemed to read my mind – she did that a lot – and she pursed her lips. "I know what you're thinking. I know you didn't tell me everything you were up to, but I could see it in your eyes… Percy, we've all done things we aren't proud of. Nobody's perfect."

I couldn't meet her eyes. Doubt was trickling down my back, filling my mind. I had caused at least as much suffering as I had caused joy. Did it matter that the suffering was mainly to monsters and supposedly evil gods and titans? I still wasn't sure. Nothing gave me the right to walk around destroying things in my way and not giving second thoughts to what I might have caused. The arai curses had made sure I kept that in mind.

"Percy," mom called, and I regretfully met her eyes. "You're a good person. You saved the world. Twice. More than that, actually, if you count your smaller quests that could have had disastrous consequences."

"Does it really make me a good person to go out slaying monsters?"

The obvious answer, which I could see was on the tip of her tongue, was yes, because monsters were bad and blah, blah, blah. But that answer didn't satisfy me anymore, not after Tartarus, after seeing what those monsters went through. Even if I mostly fought in self-defense.

"Your heart is in the right place," mom concluded. "It always has been. That's what makes you a good person." She turned back to the dishes and handed me the bowl she had just finished rinsing. "You're loyal, and caring, and gentle, Percy. Those qualities make you a great son for me, and I'm sure your dad would say the same, in his own way. They make you a good stepson for Paul; he considers you as his own son and tries his best to be the father figure you never had. He's a good judge of character, he wouldn't do that to just anyone."

"Mom…"

"They make you a good friend. Every friend of yours gives those qualities right back to you, because you attract niceness. They make you a good leader and teacher, mentor, to all those kids at camp who look at you for help. And they look up to you because you earn their respect. By simply being you. You're honorable, and they can see that."

Another bowl for me to dry.

"They make you a good boyfriend." I blushed at that, but my mom kept going. "A boyfriend who knows how to treat Annabeth right. Who stands by her side, no matter what, and supports her. Who helps her grow and lets her help you grow. Who literally goes to the end of the world with her – I mean, you two…" She shook her head, but she was smiling. "Percy, you're loving, you're devoted. You know how to love."

Did I say I was blushing before? Well, quadruple it now.

"These things will make you a good brother," mom carried on. "It's not the fact that you can bend water, it's the fact that you'll do it so purely, in such a way that only aims for getting joy from whomever is watching."

Mom handed me the last bowl and closed the tap. She leaned her hip against the counter and watched as I tried to make myself as small as possible while towel-drying the plastic dish. I had the feeling she wasn't done yet, but a guy can dream.

"These qualities will make you a great husband one day," mom suddenly said. "And now I can say that, because you'll live long enough for that."

I stopped and looked at her for the first time since she started this whole speech. "I thought you said my short life expectancy wasn't good enough reason not to hope for the future."

"It wasn't. I still hoped you'd live to find yourself someone to settle down and share your life with. But now," her eyes shined, "now that's palpable, honey. You have a safe place to live and settle down. You have someone to go with you."

My face burned up again and I turned back to the bowl. "Mom. Are you trying to kill me?"

She laughed, which made me think that, yes, she was trying to embarrass me to death. But she sobered up quickly enough. "You'll also be a great father someday. You're kindhearted and compassionate."

Mom didn't say anything after that and went on to clean the floured counter top. I was still trying very hard not to dig a hole and die, so I let her be. But once my cheeks cooled down a few degrees, I appreciated what she had just said. I knew my insecurities would never fully go away and that Tartarus had scared me and scarred me in a lot of ways, but, hey, at least my mom still thought I was worth it. Plus, she thought other people thought I was worth it. She thought I'd be good enough for what life presented to me in the future. I hid a smile.

"Oh, and Percy?" mom called me, and I made an acknowledging noise. "I'm not sure if I've made it quite clear, but I want blond grandchildren."

I had been on the process of putting the bowl with the rest of the dishes on the table so we could store them away. Needless to say, I almost dropped it – which, you might say, wouldn't have caused much trouble, since it was plastic. But then, I had to brace myself against the table, which had, in fact, glasses on top of it. I pulled on the table linen unintentionally and we almost had a disaster in our hands. At the last moment, though, mom held the other side of the linen and I managed to stabilize myself and the bowl. But I felt like one of Apollo's red cows again.

"Mom, you can't just…" I stammered. "You can't just say stuff like that." She might hear you, I thought. She's just in the other room.

"Like it isn't true?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Mom."

"Alright, alright," she raised her hands in surrender, but she was smirking when she went back to cleaning the counter. I took a moment to get my breathing under control again. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't want to… at some point. New Rome had opened a lot of doors in my brain, and the war had put things into perspective for me. I knew I had only survived Tartarus because I kept picturing a future exactly like my mom insinuated. But it was still… I mean… I wasn't even seventeen yet, come on.

When Paul and Annabeth came into the kitchen five minutes later, mom was acting naturally, and I tried my best to do so. I couldn't help but think, though, that Paul saw right through me – he had that look on his face. Annabeth, thankfully, only helped me put away the last few things, seemingly oblivious. When she kissed my cheek, I saw in the corner of my vision mom biting her trembling lips to hold back a smile and, guess what, I was blushing again. So much for coming home.